"yes," added jake, with a sigh of something like pleasure; "it looks very much as though i've got a chance to even up my accounts with 'em all. the folks are having a good time on t'other side the river, and to-morrer, when forty fort surrenders, wyoming will be wiped out so clean that the only way of telling where it has been will be by the ashes.
"i've got a lot of the best senecas that ever took the war-path, and i've promised them the biggest kind of a reward if they succeed in scooping in the whole party. queen esther told 'em to go with me and do just as i directed, so they're bound to show the stuff they're made of. gray panther is their chief, and he's directing 'em, and he beats any injin i ever heard tell of for downright cunning, and is as good as a bloodhound on the trail."
thus it was that, although jake golcher was the nominal head of the war party, the renowned chief, gray panther, was guiding operations, and it is to that remarkable seneca indian that the success of the redskins in out-generaling the fugitives was due.
"i know that maggie came near pegging out with a broken heart when her mother died, three years ago," continued golcher, "and she is so attached to her father, brother, and sister, that she will do anything in her power to save harm coming to them."
this fact could not fail to suggest the course that had taken shape in his mind long before.
"we will capture them all; then i'll make known my terms: maggie must agree to marry me; she will do it, too, if she makes the promise, and i'll agree to let all the rest go. i'll keep my word so far as the old man and eva, and i guess the aunt peggy, is concerned; but there's two that i'll wipe out—fred godfrey and that gravity gimp.
"i may have to promise to let up on 'em, but i can fix it with gray panther, so they'll be accidentally killed; but i'll never feel easy till they're both underground. as for that nigger—" and taking out his pipe, he ground his teeth together, and clenched the fingers of the free hand, and then, looking up, saw gravity gimp, the african, standing before him.
"good-evenin'," said the servant, bowing low, and making a salaam with his broad hand, inasmuch as he was without his hat; "i hopes i finds yer werry well dis ebenin."
jake golcher sprang to his feet, and his pipe dropped from his hand. it often happens that the very person of whom we are thinking turns up before us, but, although there was nothing supernatural in the appearance of the african, the renegade was startled for the moment into believing that such was the fact.
quickly recovering, he muttered something, and sitting down again on the log, picked up his pipe, took a puff or two, and looking at the lame african, asked:
"where did you come from? i thought you was satan."
"dat's purty rough on satan; but i's gravity gimp, at your sarvice, and if it am all de same i'll sot down on de log beside yer, being dat i've got a tremenjus game leg."
as he spoke, gravity limped to the fallen tree, and took his seat a short distance away, uttering a groan of pain, and nursing the limb as though his torture was great.
jake golcher was sure he never saw such impudence, but he concluded to humor the fellow for a while, until he could extract some information from him.
he was sorry his leg had been injured, for he would have liked to make him run the gauntlet, and now the suffering to which he should be doomed would have to take a different character.
the tory first asked the indians some questions, and gathered how the powerful negro had been captured. it was done under the direction of gray panther, whose hand appeared in many a skillful achievement that evening and the day following.
golcher learned from the same chief that every movement of the fugitives had been noted, and that the whites had been deceived to such an extent that they were likely to walk into the trap the senecas had set for them.
jake was favorable to making an open attack on the whites, but the sachem assured him they could all be taken without the loss of any more warriors, and so it was left to the chief.
there was only one point in which the senecas were at fault, and that was respecting the man who fired the second shot, that killed the indian as he was leaping for the rocks from which to shoot at the fugitives.
they supposed it was discharged from within the cavern, and were unaware of the fact that lieutenant godfrey was so near his friends without being with them.
they did not learn of his cautious descent, and only discovered his presence among them after the capture of the african and the start made by the fugitives to leave the ravine.
golcher was much interested in the news, and he urged gray panther to spare no effort to make his success complete, assuring him of a big reward, in addition to the praise of queen esther, who at that moment was engaged on the other side the river in torturing a number of prisoners.
the chief assured him that he had no cause for uneasiness, and then, turning about, withdrew with his warriors, leaving only a single one with jake golcher to guard the prisoner.
